Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Potato Pasty
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cut the meat into small pieces and place it at the bottom of a pan.
Season the meat with pepper and salt, then add the gravy and butter in small pieces.
Top and bake
Place a perforated plate with a valve-pipe on top and fill it with nicely mashed potatoes mixed with a little milk.
Decorate the surface of the mashed potatoes as desired.
Bake until the potatoes are covered with a delicate brown crust, about 40 to 60 minutes.
Serve
Serve immediately with a napkin folded around it.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5,442 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rump steak or mutton cutlets
- Provides the meat filling, which becomes tender as it cooks in the pan.
- Weak broth or gravy
- Adds moisture to the meat so it does not dry out during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the filling and helps the potato top brown.
- Mashed potatoes
- Forms the topping that sets and browns in the oven into a crust.
The step that matters
Bake until the potatoes are covered with a delicate brown crust. Browning comes from heat changing sugars and proteins on the surface, so the crust needs enough oven time to colour. Check the top rather than relying only on the time range, since the potato top can brown unevenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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